Dear E-foresters,
Thanks for all for the contributions. I come from Department of Livestock
and felt sad to hear the blame for possible damages of plants that hosts
caterpillar or Ghost moth by our cattle/yak/sheep. There is no such
findings and why to guestimate and blame others. Blue sheep population is
also increasing in the alpine meadows or they do not eat host plants.
Instead should find partners for such resource sustainable management and
use.

R&D on harvesting and conservation should go hand in hand to avoid any
mishap of over harvesting which will be very costly for high alpone
dwellers. There is plan to reallot the Tsamdrog to herders by putting in
place of a management plan prepared jointly with herders, Department of
livestock and Department of forest. Research findings on cordyceps or on
caterplillar host plant if any will be useful in the preparation of
grazing resource management plan.

looking forth to hear more on it.

K. Wangdi


> Although there may be many people more qualified people, including
> Phuntsho, to answer the questions of D.B. Dhital, I will give some
> partial answer. The problem with Cordyceps sinensis is that its
> sustainability probably only depends for a small part on the amount of
> harvesting taking place. It appears (or at least in Trashi Yangtse) that
> Cordyceps is found in low densities in less suitable environments such
> as alpine slopes and in higher densities in flatter alpine meadows. Most
> of the collecting will take place in the flatter areas. As Cordyceps is
> hard to find, many individual fungi, even in the flatter meadows, will
> escape harvesting and probably produce sufficient spores to produce a
> rich harvest the next year. That is as long as there will be enough host
> caterpillars around. Since very little seems to be known about the life
> cycle of the caterpillar and the Ghost moth or about its host plant(s),
> it may well be that this is the critical factor. Harvesting techniques
> or other factors such as climate change or overgrazing may effect the
> growth of the host plant(s), and this could significantly affect the
> survival of the moth or the caterpillar and consequently the
> sustainability of Cordyceps. It would be an interesting study, much more
> interesting than my present job.
>
> As for the sustainability of other marketable species that may be on
> Schedule 1 of protected species in Bhutan, such as Agarwood, Schedule 1
> (still 1995 I assume) is not a very logical list, as it includes species
> that may not even occur in Bhutan as well as some species that according
> to the IUCN redlist of endangered or threatened species are not
> threatened at all. Agarwood is listed as vulnerable by IUCN, which
> indicates to me that it should not lightly be pronounced not deserving
> its place among protected species in Bhutan, but maybe total protection
> is a bit more than is required. May be Schedule 1 should be revised,
> after which all totally protected species should be totally protected.
>
> So long,
> Piet van der Poel
> China
>
> DBDhital wrote:
> Dear Dr Phuntsho Namgyle,
>
> It is great to hear once gain from you in this forum. You have really
> taken out time from your busy schedule and made such great and very
> useful contribution. It is hoped that you will continue to appear in
> this forum.
> As you put it that the cordyceps trading has so much research, political
> and economic value. It is very true that so much is being discussed
> pertaing to the issue on research and trading of this very high value
> commodity. However I sometime feel that there is less discussion on
> topic such as resource base or sustainabiliity. There are scientists who
> say that millions of spores are produced by the plant and the
> reproduction is pretty simple and successful. Out of millions of spores
> floating in the air some thousands will be definitely infect the
> caterpillar and reproduction goes on. Now since you have studied this
> commodity in depth, you may like to enlighten us on the followings:
> How sure are we on the sustainability of this rare and very high value
> commodity ? Is somebody doing very in-depth and critical study on the
> sustainability aspect ?
> More than anything else, I guess, we need to be reasonably sure on this
> aspect. The opportinity and constarints surrounding this commodity are
> many. for example:
> (i) It is a very high value commodity (ii) Grows in the very climatic
> condition (iii) very few people have studies this species in depth (iv)
> reproduction/regeneration fairly difficult (v) Being very high value
> products everybody would like to participate in collection and trade
> (vi) management responsibility seems to be on the Department only (vii)
> suceptible to high degree of poaching from across the border (viii) if
> the commodity is not utilized then the commodity will go waste and do
> not benefit anyone. There could be many such opportinities and
> cosntraints. Under such situations, there could be many scenarios that
> are likely to unfold over the years (may be 10 to 15 years down the
> line):
> How would you like to describe couple of scenarios taking into
> consideartions some of the situations described above. What could be
> most likely scenario after (may be)12 to 15 years from now.
> In my opinion this discussion might generate lot of interst and
> information which would be very useful for innitiating policy discussion
> and ultimately would influence our management options for this very
> important rare and high value commodity.
> I will stop here to let you respond with your expert views for the
> benefit to all resource managers.
>
> Thanks and with best wishes,
> D.B.Dhital
> Forest Resources Development Division
> Department of Forest
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Phuntsho Namgyel
> To: Bhutan-eForest@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 6:12 PM
> Subject: [Bhutan-eForest] National Cordyceps Workshop - 5 May 2008
>
>
> The Ministry of Agriculture organized the National Cordyceps Workshop
> on 5th May 2008.
>
> Cordyceps trading has so much research, political and economic value,
> I said I must make this effort to share this information to the
> eForest members. Anyway, with the election over,it is not so
> difficult for me now to snatch some time to devote to other passions.
>
> Hope you find this post useful and relevant, and more importantly it
> generates once again life in our eForest group.
>
> The Workshop was attended by policy makers, resource managers,
> researchers, security personnel, buyers, and law makers and local
> leaders from the Cordyceps growing areas. The participants numbered
> over 100.
>
> What heartened me as an observer at the Workshop was that a wild
> product has for the first time in the history of forestry in the
> country assumed a national significance. There was in attendance at
> the Workshop of three cabinet ministers who included the Agriculture
> Minister, Trade Minister and Foreign Minister, and the eight members
> of the National Assembly.
>
> The Agriculture Minister said that even though Cordyceps was a
> totally protected species as per the Forest Act 1995, the Royal
> Government, being mindful of the difficult life conditions of the
> people living in Cordyceps growing areas, legalized the collections
> of Cordyceps in 2004. He noted that Cordyceps trading has brought
> about significant improvement in the living conditions of the people
> in Alpine region.
>
> Dorji Rinchen from Agriculture Marketing gave an overview of
> Cordyceps marketing which included the following statistics:
>
> Year Vol (Kg) Value (Nu. in million) Avg. Price/kg (Nu.)
>
> 2004 178 10.68 60,000.00
>
> 2005 200 13.00 65,000.00
>
> 2006 506.66 42.91 84,691.00
>
> 2007 140.36 41.15 293,160.00
>
> Dophu Dukpa who undertook a study on socio-economic impact of
> Cordyceps said that Cordyceps has taken over as the dominant source
> of cash income for the people in the Alpine areas. People have used
> the cash income to install CGI roof sheets, buy more number of yaks
> and buy compound bows.
>
> There was no paper distributed, but only power point presentation.
> Dophu, as I knew yesterday, is no more with the Agriculture Ministry
> but with the Anti-Corruption Commission.
>
> I was also asked to make a presentation. I titled my paper as "NTFP
> Commercialization. What lessons can we learn from Cordyceps
> legalization?"
>
> In the paper, I challenge our pre-occupation with the concept of
> forest protection and sustainable management for NTFPs. I identify
> these two factors being responsible for poverty of local people who
> live in the middle of rich natural resource. Cordyceps, a highly
> valued product, prior to 2004, was a resource curse for the local
> people as they were subjected to harrashment by forestry and park
> people in the field.
>
> Taking the cue from the legalization of Cordyceps picking, I propose
> that we legalize now agar-wood extraction. Agar wood is another
> valuable product found in the sub-tropical belt of the country where
> poverty is most severe, but currently it is listed in the Schedule 1
> of the Forest Act, thus totally protected. Agar wood is fast growing
> pioneer species and easy to raise in the nursery. It is not a matter
> of conservation issue at all.
>
> The last presentation was by Chado Tshering of the Department of
> Forests. The presentation touched on the issues and management of
> Cordyceps. The issues discussed included the start and end time of
> Cordyceps picking, defining the collection rights and auction system.
>
> The discussions were lively. I enjoyed it thoroughly, and I wished I
> was a researcher again.
>
> Karma Dukpa, Director of Forests, chaired the discussions.
>
> He said to me over lunch that he is working on re-branding the
> Department of Forests as people and economy friendly.
>
> The future looks bright. I cannot wait to see the end of 10th FYP
> with the new political system and the new direction in forest policy
> formulation.
>
> This post has turned up longer than I thought. I hope you don't mind.
>
> Phuntsho Namgyel
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it
> now.


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